Train ticket prices make no sense

[shouldbeinbed]

Some clever sausage has set up a site to minimise travel costs by splitting your journey down wherever possible to the cheapest tickets per segment:

https://raileasy.trainsplit.com/main.aspx

P.S. I'm posting this link while reading page 1 in case I'm TMNing somebody

 

[Brandane]

Driving to Cornwall is a chore and not a pleasure it's a challenging drive from Leeds never mind Ayr.

It has it's advantages/disadvantages. At least I am guaranteed a seat.
I quite enjoy travelling by any mode of transport so I don't regard driving as a chore (SE England being the exception - stressville).
I could always take the 60 mpg motorbike and cut the cost even more! £50 each way.

 

[nickyboy]

The cheapest fares are released twelve weeks in advance and you can get to Penzance from Ayr early-July for around £67 one way if you split the journey at Carlisle, and Birmingham that is buy three tickets; Ayr to Carlisle, Carlisle to Birmingham and Birmingham to Penzance.

Timing is everything.

Keep stuff like that under your hat. Those folk on here moaning about train prices are subsidising these cheap tickets that we, with a bit of effort, can get

You've just got to know the rules of the game. eg I'm travelling Holyhead - Glossop in a couple of weeks. If I go on a booking website it's £46 at any time. But if I buy an off peak Holyhead - Manchester then a separate Manchester - Glossop it comes out at £19. I much prefer long journeys to be by train. I can relax, I know (with reasonable certainty) that I'm going to get there on time, I can work on the train. However, if the Nickyboy family are all going then we'll probably car it as the cost of 4 tickets can be prohibitive

 

[vernon]

Keep stuff like that under your hat. Those folk on here moaning about train prices are subsidising these cheap tickets that we, with a bit of effort, can get

You've just got to know the rules of the game. eg I'm travelling Holyhead - Glossop in a couple of weeks. If I go on a booking website it's £46 at any time. But if I buy an off peak Holyhead - Manchester then a separate Manchester - Glossop it comes out at £19. I much prefer long journeys to be by train. I can relax, I know (with reasonable certainty) that I'm going to get there on time, I can work on the train. However, if the Nickyboy family are all going then we'll probably car it as the cost of 4 tickets can be prohibitive

Have a look at family railcards. For quite a while I qualified for an 'I don't qualify for a railcard' railcard but there's now a railcard for two named people with considerable savings - up to 30%, to be had.

 

[subaqua]

I keep reading about the cheapest fares being released 6 weeks in advance. I might take myself down to Cornwall in late May, so checked the fares from Ayrshire on 20th May, going for 1 week. Off peak return £270, anytime return £440 .
Outrageous, insane pricing. I flew to Orlando and back in January, from Glasgow via London with British Airways, for less than that.
I quite enjoy travelling by train, but at those prices they can FRO..

try 3 months in advance and you will get a cheap ticket.

I had a first class return from Euston to Chester for £20- I can consume more than that in freebies in 1st- in October last year bought late July . Like almost everything if you leave to last minute you pay a fortune. only exception i have found is hotels who would rather have a small loss on a room V a massive loss by having empty rooms.

can get a bit scary booking train early and leaving hotel till the day before.

 

[subaqua]

It has it's advantages/disadvantages. At least I am guaranteed a seat.
I quite enjoy travelling by any mode of transport so I don't regard driving as a chore (SE England being the exception - stressville).
I could always take the 60 mpg motorbike and cut the cost even more! £50 each way.

we drive to cornwall from London and its a ballache, well its a hip ache. when i have gone to penzance from paddington i can get up and move round on the train without having to stop. also don't have to stop for the inevitable " daaad I need a wee" call within 20 minutes of leaving the services.

In penzance the bus services are very very good. to be fair the bus in snozzle is good too. its just further out into rural cornwall it gets a bit patchy.

dive trips done like this are brilliant as i can chuck my kit in the club dive van with the rest of the club kit and take a lovely relaxing journey down to the sea.

 

[Brains]

I keep reading about the cheapest fares being released 6 weeks in advance. I might take myself down to Cornwall in late May, so checked the fares from Ayrshire on 20th May, going for 1 week. Off peak return £270, anytime return £440 .
Outrageous, insane pricing. I flew to Orlando and back in January, from Glasgow via London with British Airways, for less than that.
I quite enjoy travelling by train, but at those prices they can FRO..

We found the same thing for two of us last year, as I pointed out to the booking clerk it would be cheaper to grab a black London taxi outside Paddington station and be driven down.
Utterly crazy pricing structure (Hence, we drove down, its far far cheaper, and just as fast door to door)

 

[Brains]

Two mates travelling from N Wales to London Easter Monday, both booked their tickets on the same trains on the same day.
One paid £48 the other £95
One booked the ticket via one of those sites which splits the trip, so he had three different tickets
The other did it via the official company site.

The questions are:
Is it morally acceptable to rip people off?
It it in fact theft ?

 

[Brains]

Moving 4 adults and 10 students from London to Nice.
Cost from Dover to Nice was about £50 per person (1,000+ miles plus a ferry, plus a trip across Paris)
Cost from London to Dover was £55 per person (70 miles)

We ended up hiring a minibus for London to Dover

 

[Brandane]

Moving 4 adults and 10 students from London to Nice.
Cost from Dover to Nice was about £50 per person (1,000+ miles plus a ferry, plus a trip across Paris)
Cost from London to Dover was £55 per person (70 miles)

We ended up hiring a minibus for London to Dover

Yes but come on old chap, it's just not British to moan about anything British. Let's just stick our heads in the sand and pretend that Britain is still "Great" Britain. This country needs a right good kick up the ar5e from top to bottom. Nothing works the way it should, and the transport system is just one example. We could start by taking a leaf out of the French book when it comes to transport.
Good; I feel better now!

 

[Pale Rider]

[QUOTE="Brandane, post: 3639052, member: 8443" We could start by taking a leaf out of the French book when it comes to transport.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, we need more strikes.

No more namby-pamby overtime bans, proper 'one out all out' action so we really can cripple the country.

 

[snorri]

. We could start by taking a leaf out of the French book when it comes to transport.

The local peoples quaint custom of holding up the traffic by creating bonfires in the middle of public roads did nothing to endear me to the French transport system.

 

[mjr]

If companies told their staff


Is there some kind of software or a website that works out these affordable combinations?

http://split.traintimes.org.uk/ will do complex splits but only on singles... but the same split by return will usually be good too.

 

[mjr]

The local peoples quaint custom of holding up the traffic by creating bonfires in the middle of public roads did nothing to endear me to the French transport system.

@Brandane will probably like that: travel's not a chore and it's a free show thrown in!

 

[Arrowfoot]

http://split.traintimes.org.uk/ will do complex splits but only on singles... but the same split by return will usually be good too.

Thanks bud. Much appreciated.